Derrike Cope

Derrike Cope was planning on professional baseball being his career. The Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles were scouting Derrike during his high school days, but Derrike's father Don insisted he take the scholarship that Whitman College offered. In 1978 with Derrike playing catcher in a collegiate baseball game in Walla Walla, Washington, his plans for a baseball career immediately changed. He went to retrieve a wild pitch and when he turned to throw back to the base, his knee gave way. It turned out that the medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments were severed. Derrike talks about this in an interview that is in MP3 format.

During his recovery, he helped his brother with his race car. Derrike's father was an engine builder for some of the best drivers in Winston West competition. This led Derrike to be interested in racing and after driving a few times, came up with the conclusion that racing would be his new career.

Derrike commented, "I had just started racing at Spanaway (Washington) Speedway when the throttle on my race car stuck and my car hit the wall, flipped and hit the embankment. I was blinded in my right eye for several weeks following that accident. An injury like that could have altered my whole life. I had to do a lot of thinking before my sight came back about what I would do. Once my eye had recovered, I went on with my career, and rarely do I think of what could have happened."

When Derrike is not racing, he presents motivational talks to school age children on such subjects as the importance of staying in school and never taking drugs. He is also actively involved in the March-of-Dimes, the DARE program, and supporting various charities. Being a positive role model and setting a good example is very important to Derrike.

Derrike enjoys golfing in charity tournaments and racing remote control hydroplane boats during the summer. In the winter, he hunts duck and pheasant with his father.

In 1995 Derrike Cope fans were pleased to see Derrike in a television commercial for the NASCAR credit cards. The great thing was to see him along with Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace in the commercial, and Derrike even had more speaking lines! Richard Petty also had a cameo at the end of the commercial. It helped to bring Derrike to the same level as the other top stars in Winston Cup. See below to view the commercial.

Derrike did some commercials for Badcock Home Furnishings in 1996. You can view all the mentioned commercials here in either RealVideo or Windows Media format.

In 1997, Derrike Cope joined some fellow NASCAR drivers and sang on Lonnie Hillard's CD Race Tracks II. Derrike was featured on one song and had a verse on another song. This was more singing than any of the other drivers did.

Derrike has two nieces who are just getting started into racing but are already showing potential. There was another excellent article about them at the start of the 2000 racing season.

Twins Angela, left, and Amber Cope are typical 16-year-olds, with one notable exception: They own the race car behind them.
Jeff Larsen/P-I

In 2001 and 2002, Derrike Cope became an analyst on FOX Sports Net when he wasn't racing.

In 2004, Derrike took a daring move and shaved off his long-time moustache. Derrike was asked about his clean shaven look now and responded, "As for the removal of my mustache, I just thought it was time for a change. Maybe it will change my luck!!! It is quite a difference for me after all these years, but I am very comfortable with it."

C2P Suspension Technology In Derrike's spare time, he runs a company called C2P Suspension Technology. "C2P is a brand of shocks that I sell worldwide," Derrike said. "It was developed after 2QWIK with improvements, some new variations, and processes that made it much more competitively priced. We produce shocks for motorcycles, ATV, stock cars, dirt cars, midgets, sprint cars, modified cars, snowmobiles, road bikes, some road cars, and specialty cars such as Lotus Elise, Viper, Evo, Miata, Corvette, Lambourgini, Ferrari, etc. The C2P brand is not approved for the three top series of NASCAR. It is approved for ARCA and many other series across the United States for the grass roots local racing series. As for 2QWIK, it was a shock line that I started with. It was very nice utilizing the finest materials and was very high priced. It was sold through an exclusive distributor, which did not work out, so it was discontinued."

Thanks to Donna Eyer for the MBNA commercial